Masculinity and colonialism: towards the "new man" (subsidies for gender and post-colonial studies in Portuguese language context)

Abstract

This study aims at introducing a number of problems found in contempo­rary gender studies when it comes to the observation of the constitution of male identities and masculinities within colonial contexts. The emphasis traditionally given to the female identity along with its literary representa­tions has created a “heteroeurologofalocentric” stereotype that homogeniz­es male identities disregarding historical and cultural contingences which make them plural. The attention to the concept of “new man”, a model re­quired both by the Portuguese Estado Novo as by the groups who consti­tuted the independence movements of the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries, shows that in the quest for victory ideals of masculinity, which were often away from the traditions of each alleged side, also competed.